A Lifestyle + Travel Blog Featuring a 20-something American Woman Living an Expat Life in France

Dégustation de Vin

In a sense, 2014 has been the year of wine tasting.

Back towards the end of April, I went to a public wine tasting in Toulon. The concept included purchasing a 5 euro wine glass (to keep), and then visiting the various booths in order to taste the different reds, whites, and rosé of the region. (In a non-classier sense, it was a cheap and easy way to get drunk off of free wine on a Sunday afternoon).

This past May in Tuscany, my friend and I had a classier, semi-private food and wine tour around the town of Siena, where we tasted local Italian wines, cheeses, coffee, and desserts.

The week before the December break, I was invited to a formal, private wine tasting at a local hotel/winery here in Northern France. For only 30 euros, we were given a private tasting, which included 3 bottles of white wine, 3 bottles of red wine, and 1 bottle of rosé wine. Alongside the wine, we were also given various cheeses, sausages, and breads. Our teacher helped us to pair up the best cheese and wine combo in order to really authenticate the different tastes. He also taught us how to properly slurp and gurgle the wine in our mouths, so that we could actually experience all of the different layers of the wine– it was actually incredible!

The art of wine making is so, so fascinating, and equally complicated.